AIBU to be upset after a dog jumped at our baby?

[KellyK2026]

Okay, so myself, DH and baby were at a country park the other week. Baby was getting hungry so we sat ourselves down on a park bench and got some food out. A woman was walking with her family and dog and the dog must’ve smelt the food as it suddenly
comes bounding over and is jumping at baby (who is on DH knee) to get the food. We don’t know this dog and don’t know what it's capable of. I scream at the owner that we have a baby and to get her dog under control. At this point, she’s pretty far away and is taking her time to come over. My DH then kicks the dog to get it off them as it just will not stop. The woman wasn’t particularly apologetic and seemed shocked. Did we overreact?

I’ve literally said repeatedly he couldn’t either.

Neither of you tried to stand up and move your baby out of harm's way. That is entirely on you. You weren't holding the baby. Nothing stopped you standing up and taking the baby so your husband could also stand up. Your poor judgement could have harmed your baby.

But you wasn’t holding the baby … DH was, he can stand up, you can keep screaming

'no further action '.

Nothing stopped me from standing up except the fact I’m disabled you mean.

So your baby is being attacked by a dog but you won’t chuck a bit of food on the floor to save said baby from the dog?!?

He couldn’t.

No, my priority was to shield my baby. Not to feed the dog.

Surely it would be distracting the dog rather than feeding it, therefore, removing the risk from your baby.

Look it isn't “hard” to put a dog on a lead. That completely misses the point. The objection is that requiring every dog to be kept on a lead simply because no dog is 100% perfect is cruel and disproportionate.

Dogs have behavioural and welfare needs: they need to run, sniff, explore, play and move freely. For many dogs, permanently restricting them to the end of a lead would significantly reduce their quality of life. That restriction needs a better justification than “a dog might occasionally do something undesirable”.

Of course a dog that is aggressive, out of control, has unreliable recall or is in a place where leads are required should be on a lead. But a generally well-controlled dog does not suddenly become “dangerous” because it might once in a while jump up, approach somebody or try to steal food.

Almost nothing involving people, children or animals is completely risk-free. Proportionate risk management means responding to the actual level of risk, not demanding that an entire population be heavily restricted because sometimes an animal is less than perfectly behaved.

Yanbu at all OP. Ignore the entitled dog people. Even if the dog was harmless, you and your DH weren’t to know that.

Urgh so what if she hasn't had kids? You are one of those who believes that not having kids precludes you from expressing any opinion whatsoever as far as children are concerned. You sound sanctimonious and insufferable as though you believe procreating makes you morally superior to others and that your partner was well within his rights to kick a spaniel/similar dog. I would much rather have a friendly spaniel or similar approach me than be in the vicinity of a baby covered in food (yuck) and its hysterical parents who think it is acceptable to kick animals. If you dislike dog walkers being near you, perhaps keep your baby indoors.

Sorry OP, I think you’ve failed to show that your actions were justified and in proportion to the situation, DH actions were completely unjustified and aggressive.
If this situation resulted in such a high level of panic, over-reaction and such analysis weeks later, good luck for the rest of your parenting years!

If a toddler has come over and started pulling the babies hair/hitting the baby, what would you have done?

Normal people would have gotten their baby out of harm's way. The spaniel sized dog was trying to get the food, normal people's reaction is to throw the food away from the baby and stand up. Two grown adults did neither of those things.

I assume the food ran up to us because of food and that’s why it kept jumping up at my baby who had food on their face and bib. I don’t know if throwing a bit of my baby’s food would’ve distracted it and, frankly, I should’ve need to worry about that when I’m in a public space. My baby could’ve been nipped by this dog. My priority was to shield the baby like the dog owner’s priority should’ve been to get her dog.

Sounds like they are first time parents who think the world revolves around their child.

Fur baby, dog “ mum and dad.l”. It’s all nauseating.

I like dogs, though I don’t have one, as I couldn’t care for it properly. But a dog is not a person, and definitely not a child. It should be properly trained.

But surely that was the most simple thing to try, thus giving your husband time to unstraddle the bench, stand up and run for the hills.

It was larger than a spaniel, as I’ve repeatedly said. I can’t stand up. My DH couldn’t either in that situation. The dog owner saw it and said sorry. So why on earth you’re defending her dog when she didn’t, nor did her family, is baffling.

Ok and now that you've learnt that this is not the right way to shield a baby as a lot of dogs would become aggressive when kicked, what would you do differently next time?

Sent DH over to kick it.

Why didn’t they throw the food away from them so the dog would leave and stand up? They don't need to know anything more than to remove the reason the dog approached them in the first place.

I am not a dog person. I wouldn't have sat there like a wet blanket instead of removing my baby from the situation.

I said it happened quickly and, unless you’re in that situation, you don’t know how you’ll react. I felt like my baby was under threat as the dog had made contact with it several times before my DH managed to block the dog with his body. And the worst thing you can do is run when a dog is doing that. Even I know what. And he’s not going to run with an infant in his arms. What is wrong with you?

So now the dog nutters think we owe their dogs free food?